The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-08-18
lie IRAN DISPATCHED.
Mau who Holds the Lie of Every
Passenger la His Hand.

A Mau who Holds the Lie of Everl
Passenger ia HIS Hand.
There is a class Of railway employees
almost entirely unknown TO passengers
whose responsibility is so much greater
and whose slightest omission might
Jeopardize the lives of people on trains
more than any oversight on the part OF
conductors on engineers, that IL Is indeed
strange that they are so seldom mentioned
IN the public prints. This class is the
train dispItChcr-, whose every order IL
implicitly obeycd 10y trainmcni and while
the crew of one train is responsible for the
movements of that train alone, the dis
paichcr holds in his hands the lives OF
every individual on every train on the
road, and ON "a road having "A large traffic
the duties imposed on him are very great
and arduous.
Ills position in the railway service is
unique, were all trains running on time
and provided for on the periodical time
table issued 10y the company, he would
have no duties TO perform; but trains VIII
get delayed and occasions viii arise re
curing extra trains or trains without
any specified time or rights, to be run over
the road, and then his services are neces-
sary To avoid hours of delay
All trains on railroads are divided in
classes, according TO their Importance;
generally two, passenger and freight
and all trains of one class running in IA
specified direction have the right of the
road, or need keep no lookout for trains OF
the same or a lower class running in the
opposite direction. Thus it is assumed
that on a certain railroad trains running
eastward have the right of way over trains
running westward; then an east bound
passenger train can run the whole length
of the road in entire disregard of all trains;
another passenger train going west need
only To look ont for the east bound pas
senger train, while the freight trains
must keep out of the way of both passen-
ger trains and of the freight train which
is running in the direction prescribed as
having the right of road.
Every one understands that all trains
are chartered, or have a time given for
passing each station which time can in
no instance be anticipated, and hence all
trainmen know where all other trains
ought to be at any particular moment, if
on time; but as trains frequently and gen
orally get late, the train of inferior class
must have its movement expedited by
some eNtraneOus cause, or it may he de
layed for hours awaiting train that may
have been wrecked, or has been kept back
for some other of many causes. Then the
duties Of the train dispatcher are of i'm
portance. He will probably give an order
to the delayed train by telegraph direct
ing 1t not to go beyond a certain place
which he thinks it can reach without diff
tiCulty, and he directs the opposing train
TO proceed to the same place and there
pass the other train, and in that manner
the trains are enabled TO pass each other
without any delay to either. His great
consists in that he may have
a dozen other trains in his charge at the
same time, and in directing one train to
go beyond its usual place to meet another
he may neglect to give an order to the
second train, and in such an event a COLI
sion would probably ensue, much prop
erty be destroyed and probably lives be
lost.
1t viii readily be seen that the slightest |
mistake of a train dispatcher might cause /
serious results; and in this respect his re- !
3pOnsibiIity is probably greater than that /
IF any other individual under whose /
charge the public are placed-PhiladeI- |
)hia Times